Letter to the Editor, Posted: 6/8/05
TO THE EDITOR:
Iím writing because Iím concerned with recent votes taken by our Minnesota District 17 Sen. Sean Nienow, Rep. Rob Eastlund and Rep. Pete Nelson from 17A and 17B. All three state legislators voted against the Transportation Bill, which was passed then vetoed by the Governor. Rep. Pete Nelson called it a flawed bill and a bad deal for local roads and a complete disservice to Greater Minnesota.
As a Chisago County commissioner I have a different view on the transportation bill. The county board just sold $7 million in road improvement bonds, because our state aid dollars arenít keeping up with the road needs. Our portion of state dollars is a percentage of the state gas tax. A phased in increase of the stateís gas tax of .05 now and another .05 cents in 2008 will bring about $1 million of new money to Chisago County highway funds every year.
Allowing counties to charge a wheelage (fee) of $20 per car would raise another $1 million a year for our countiesí roads. If youíve driven on many of our county roads you know how much work is needed on them. Chisago County has almost 400 miles of county roads, on a 20-year life cycle we should be paving 20 miles of roads each year. We are currently nowhere near this amount and at $250,000 a mile to repave it would be about $5 million a year to do 20 miles a year.
The wheelage fee and gas tax would go a long way to helping us rebuild our county road system, along with the other features of the transportation bill. Please call our state legislators and ask them to support the transportation bill as first passed, and represent us the residents of this district and not the Tax Payerís League of Minnesota.
Letís not forget to thank our U.S. 8th District Congressman Jim Oberstar for getting money for the North Branch bridge, the County 17 bridge and Highway 8 safety improvements. Congressman Oberstar has allocated over $20 million for Chisago County road projects in the House side of the Federal Transportation Bill. If you can, please contact our United States Senators Coleman and Dayton about supporting these Chisago County projects in the Senate side of the Federal Transportation bill.
Rick Olseen
Chisago County Commissioner
District Two
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